


Bleed Into Me

by Whedonista93



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ben Solo Lives, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Character Death Fix, F/M, Fix-It, Force Dyad (Star Wars), Redeemed Ben Solo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:53:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24642841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whedonista93/pseuds/Whedonista93
Summary: Ben twines his fingers with Rey’s, then rests their joined hands in her lap. “Two parts of one whole.”
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 3
Kudos: 46





	Bleed Into Me

**Author's Note:**

> So, I should definitely be working on one of my original works right now, I even promised my co-author I would be, but my husband wanted to watch Rise of Skywalker and it gave me aaaaaalll the Ben/Rey feels again, and then Bleed Into Me by Trivium came on the radio on my way to work aaaand, well, here we are.

Rey feels a brief flare of panic when Ben falls back, then sees the shallow rise and fall of his chest and realizes he passed out. She almost passes out herself with the relief of it, then realizes she’s going to have to drag his massive frame off Exegol and curses. Later, her memory of getting him into the X-Wing is hazy, bordering on non-existant, but she manages. They’re halfway back to Ajan-Kloss when he begins to rouse. She feels him stiffen with a flare of panic, followed immediately by recognition and his arms wrapping around her waist.

“How?” He breathes against her neck.

“I don’t know,” she answers honestly.

His arms tighten around her. 

“I’m glad, though,” she tells him softly. “I don’t… for a moment, I thought you died, and I couldn’t breathe.”

“You _did_ die,” he mutters, somewhat accusatory.

She flinches. “Sorry.”

He rests his head against her back. “You’re here now.”

“We’re _both_ here now.”

A comfortable silence reigns until she begins the descent onto Ajan-Kloss.

Ben’s arms tighten around her almost painfully. “They’re going to hate me.”

Rey takes one hand off the controls long enough to squeeze his arm. “They don’t know you, Ben.”

“I-”

“You are not, Kylo Ren,” Rey cuts him off fiercely. “You’re Ben.”

Ben exhales shakily, breath warm against her neck.

“Trust me.”

Ben hooks his chin over her shoulder. “Okay.”

Rey lands the X-Wing, and firmly grips Ben’s hand as soon as they’re both on the ground. A few of the braver members of the Resistance clap her on the shoulder, smile and thank her as they pass through the crowds. Ben simply follows in her wake as she searches the crowds. She only releases Ben when she’s in arms reach of the pilot and the Storm Trooper deserter who had helped him escape. Rey practically throws herself at them and Ben stands back awkwardly as the three of them cling to one another until he’s spun around by a massive hand on his shoulder. Before he can process what’s happening, Chewbacca has lifted him off the ground in a bone-crushing hug, even as the wookie begins a long-winded lecture.

Ben nods sheepishly. “Yeah, I’m done with the Dark Side. I promise.”

Chewie gives him one final shake, sets him back on his feet, nods to someone behind Ben, and stalks off.

Ben turns to find Rey smiling up at him. “Alright?”

Ben blinks away a fresh wave of tears. “He’s the only family I have left.”

Rey wraps her arms around him and rests her head against his chest. “You have me.”

His arms go around her shoulders and he buries his face on her hair.

The former Storm Trooper clears his throat. “Uh, Rey…”

Rey turns her head enough to look at her friend. “Be nice!” 

“Nice?! But he’s-”

“Ben,” Rey cut him off, tone brooking no argument. “Ben, this is Finn,” she gestures to the former Trooper, “and Poe,” her hand waves toward the pilot. “They’re my friends. Guys, this is Ben. He’s… well, he’s just mine.”

“ _Riiight_ ,” Poe drawls. “Uh… okay, Rey, ya know we love you and trust you and all that, but, uh…”

“Maybe we should have this conversation somewhere else,” Finn interrupts.

Rey lets out a shaky breath and glances around. “The _Falcon_?”

Poe nods. “Yeah, let’s do that.”

Some of the tension drains out of Ben the moment they step foot on the _Falcon_. He reaches out with his free hand idly and Rey feels something that she can only describe as _home_ when Ben’s fingers brush against the cool metal of the walls. When he looks up, he has tears in his eyes.

She squeezes his hand and looks up at him curiously.

Ben shrugs. “I never thought I’d step foot on this ship again.” 

They manage to find their way to one of the cargo areas, sinking to seats as exhaustion starts to set in. Rey sits directly on Ben’s lap.

“So…” Poe says. “Yours?”

Rey huffs. “I know it sounds silly.”

“But it means something?”

Rey nods. “It has to do with the Force. It’s called a Dyad. We’re… tied to one another.”

“Tied?” Finn asks.

Ben twines his fingers with Rey’s, then rests their joined hands in her lap. “Two parts of one whole.”

Finn shakes his head. “I don’t understand.”

Rey takes a deep breath. “I died, Finn. On Exegol.”

Finn and Poe both gasp.

Ben squeezes her hands.

Rey exhales shakily. “Ben brought me back. It’s not… it’s not how the Force usually works. Dyads are incredibly rare, from the little about them in Master Luke’s books. Ben and I… we don’t exist without each other.”

“You keep calling him Ben,” Poe observes, tone carefully neutral.

“Because he is Ben,” Rey answers steadily. “And Ben is not Kylo Ren.”

“Kylo Ren died on the ruins of the Death Star,” Ben says quietly. “Whatever,” his voice catches. “Whatever my mother did in her last moments… I heard her. I felt her. I…” he trails off and drops his head to Rey’s shoulder.

Rey draws her hands from his and stands, moving behind him to wrap her arms around his shoulders and rest her weight against his back. “Kylo Ren is gone.”

Poe nods. “Yeah, I can see that.”

Finn looks at him sharply.

Poe shrugs. “What?! He is. Kylo Ren was kriffing terrifying. This guy… he looks like a broken little kid and I almost want to hug him.”

Rey bursts out laughing and tightens her arms around Ben’s shoulders. “He’s not wrong.”

“Fine,” Finn acquiesces. “But what do we tell the rest of the Resistance?”

Poe shakes his head. “The truth. Palpatine had him prisoner in his own mind. Close enough to the truth, right?”

Rey rests her chin on top of Ben’s head. “Yeah.”

Finn wrinkles his nose. “You guys always gonna be like this?”

Poe laughs. “Oh come on, it’s kinda cute.”

“You’re supposed to be on my side!” Finn protests.

“We’re all on the same side. Isn’t that the whole point?”

Finn rolls his eyes. “Yeah, I guess.”

“We all need some rest,” Poe sighs. “I, uh… guessing we don’t need to find a bunk for Ben?”

Rey blushes, but shakes her head. “He’ll stay with me.”

They tumble into one of the bunks on the _Falcon_ , and they’re both asleep within minutes. Rey wakes up with Ben curled around her and Finn staring at her. She glares at her friend.

Finn grins unrepentantly. “You’ve been asleep for two days. We wanted to make sure you were alive.”

Rey chuckles. “Yeah,” she rasps. Ben snuffles against her back. She pats his arm. “I’ve gotta use the fresher, Ben.” He releases her with an incomprehensible grumble. She showers and slips into a clean tunic and breeches and comes in time to see Finn and Ben shaking hands, and feels contentment humming through the bond and can’t help but smile. “Playing nice?”

Finn shrugs and grins. “He may not be so bad. Lots of folks wanna see you guys.”

Rey smiles. “Ben, fresher?”

His lips twitch. “Do I smell?”

“Yes,” Finn answers without hesitation.

Rey shrugs.

Ben kicks his heel against the wall. “I don’t have any other clothes.”

Finn stands and grasps his shoulder. “No worries, buddy. I’ll find you something.”

“Thank you,” Ben says quietly.

Rey manages to get her hair brushed and tied back in her usual style by the time Finn returns with an armful of clothes.

“Hopefully most of the stuff in here will work,” Finn says, depositing the pile on the bunk. “I asked people as close to his size as I could find. Everyone who gave me stuff said he can keep them.”

Rey beams and hugs him. “Thank you, Finn.”

Finn hugs her back and shrugs. “I remember what it was like, when I first joined the Resistance. It sucks, not having anything.”

Rey hugs him again, then picks the pile up and takes it to the fresher, dropping it in a pile outside the door and calling out to Ben that it’s there before going back to Finn.

Finn frowns at her. “He’s just as messed up as the rest of us, huh?”

Rey nods. “Probably more… he… it’s like our thoughts and emotions bleed into each other. He was so lonely and so uncertain. It’s not so bad now that he’s here with us.”

“With you,” Finn says.

Rey shrugs.

“We’ve all got a long way to go, huh?”

Rey nods. “The whole galaxy does, I think.”

Finn nods. “Yeah.”

Ben comes back a few minutes later, wearing a pair of dark brown pants and a loose tan, linen shirt, the rest of the clothes folded neatly and stacked in his arms. “Who do I need to return these t-”

“They’re yours,” Finn tells him. “Poe is checking through Snap’s things to see if he can find you a jacket.”

Rey’s head snaps up. “Snap?”

Finn shakes his head. “He didn’t make it.”

Rey’s eyes fill with tears. “Oh.”

Ben is immediately at her side, clothes forgotten in a heap on the floor as he wraps his arms around her.

Rey sniffles. “He was nice. Funny, even if I didn’t always understand his jokes.”

Ben rubs a hand up and down her arm soothingly. “It’s over now. No more senseless losses.”

Rey nods. “Yeah. Right.” She takes a deep breath and straightens up. “We should go. Out. See people. Figure out what’s next. Will you hand me my boots?”

Finn tosses them her way on his way out.

Ben slips his own boot on, then goes to a hidden panel in the wall and pulls an old leather holster and scuffed old blaster that he straps on carefully before hooking Leia’s lightsaber to his opposite hip.

Rey looks him up and down, then giggles.

He raises an eyebrow.

Rey smiles. “You look like your dad.”

The smile Ben returns is bittersweet. He offers her a hand up and brushes a strand of hair out of her face after she takes it. He swallows.

“What?” Rey asks, smiling.

“I really want to kiss you again.”

Rey’s smile grows. “You don’t have to ask, you know.”

He cups her cheek with the hand he’d used to brush her hair aside and lowers his lips to her.

Many are wary of Ben, but no one is hostile, at least not when he’s around Rey, and he’s always around Rey. They discover early on that he panics when he can’t see her, even if he can feel her. _It’s hard to be hateful toward someone as broken as Ben_ , Rose tells Rey.

Eventually, they decide to take the _Falcon_ in search of Force sensitive people, children especially, who want to learn. They decide to build their own sabers after they visit Jedha. It’s Ben’s idea to take Luke and Leia’s sabers to Tatooine. There’s something that is simultaneously surreal and settling about being in Luke’s childhood home. They bury the lightsabers together before noticing the old woman passing.

“There’s been no one for so long.” The old woman tilts her head. “Who are you?”

“This is Ben. I’m Rey.”

“Rey who?”

Ben puts his shoulder when she hesitates. “Rey Solo.”

Rey blinks up at him. “You would give me your name?”

Ben smiles softly. “I would give you anything.”

Rey smiles back. “You’ve already given me everything.”


End file.
